La Crosse Leopold Days Celebration
Aldo Leopold’s essays in “A Sand County Almanac” will be featured in a series of events, all of them free, in the La Crosse area for the state’s annual Leopold observance held each year on the first weekend in March. Leopold, a conservationist, forester, philosopher, educator, writer, and outdoor enthusiast, is considered by many as the father of wildlife management and of the United States wilderness system.
No registration required for these free events.
VIRTUAL EVENT – Monday, February 27
7:00 p.m.
D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership Facebook page
The D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership lecture series will present a Facebook-streamed talk by UW-Madison Prof. Lauren Riters titled “Why do birds sing?” Aldo Leopold wrote and spoke of listening for the first bird songs of a dawning day as in his essay, “The Choral Copse” in the Almanac. But almost a century later the question of why birds sing is still a puzzle according to Riters, Professor of Behavior Neuroscience at UW-Madison. Riters received a PhD in Psychology in the Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Program at Bowling Green State University where she studied how birds migrate and return home from distant locations. This was followed by postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Liege in Belgium and at The Johns Hopkins University where she began to study how and why birds sing.
IN PERSON EVENTS – Saturday, March 4
9:30 to 11:00 a.m.
Myrick Park Center in La Crosse
789 Myrick Park Dr, La Crosse, WI 54601
The Leopold observance will be the theme of WisCorps’s “Nature Saturday.” The family activities will include crafts, scavenger hunts, and live animals.
11:00 a.m.
Myrick Park Center in La Crosse
789 Myrick Park Dr, La Crosse, WI 54601
The Friends of the Marsh will hold a family-friendly hike around the marsh The theme will be Aldo Leopold’s “Marshland Elegy,” from A Sand County Almanac. Hikers should dress for conditions.
12:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge Visitor Center on Brice Prairie
N5727 County Rd Z, Onalaska, WI 54650
Activities will include a talk by retired UW-L professor Steve Simpson. In the opening chapter of his new book, “Essays to My Daughter on Our Relationship With the Natural World,” Steve Simpson tells a story about taking a group of University of Wisconsin-La Crosse students to Leopold’s Shack. On the drive home, Steve updates Leopold’s essay “The Good Oak” by recalling a dozen-plus regional environmental events that occurred well after the publication of “A Sand County Almanac.” Clare Simpson (the daughter for whom Essays to My Daughter was written) joins her dad to conduct a public reading that blends Leopold’s “The Good Oak” with Steve’s contemporary essay “The Good Oak Redux.” Next, Jay Fernholz will lead a walk and talk about what's so good about oaks. Jay is a retired landscape architect who serves on the State Capitol and Executive Residence Board. Refuge staff will be available to answer questions and share tips for places to get out and explore this winter. Volunteers from the Friends of the Refuge Mississippi River Pools 7 & 8 will be staffing the Prairie Wind Nature Store during the event and will provide hot cocoa after the walk. Please dress for winter weather!
About Aldo Leopold
Leopold, a conservationist, forester, philosopher, educator, writer, and outdoor enthusiast, is considered by many as the father of wildlife management and of the United States wilderness system. He died in 1948 fighting a neighbor's grass fire at “the shack,” his family getaway on the Wisconsin River near Portage. Since 2004 the state has designated the first weekend in March as a time to honor Leopold and his conservation legacy. According to the Leopold Foundation, that legacy is “to inform and inspire us to see the natural world as a community to which we belong.” The La Crosse event is planned each year by representatives of local environmental and conservation groups.
Photo above of an oak tree on a recently conserved property in Richland County. Photo by Abbie Church.